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for Translation of the Kaiser Papers

The Nov. 6 front-page article "Patel's disturbing
record at Kaiser stayed
hidden for years" proved as much an indictment of our flawed health
care
system as it was an expose of a dangerous, arrogant surgeon.

When health plans tell their members to be "better
health care consumers"
and shop for providers with the best health outcomes (and best
pricing),
it is a laughable proposition given the lack of transparency into a
physician's
track record, as described in the article.

And when physicians bemoan the cost of their
malpractice insurance and
plead their case to voters with tort-reform ballot measures, we would
do
well to remember the Dr. Patels of the profession who practice,
seemingly,
with a license to kill, owing to the lack of oversight by the
profession.

One would think that physicians would support a
system whereby the worst
practitioners would be readily identified and required to pay higher
malpractice
premiums, if not forced out of the profession altogether. Physicians,
police
thyselves!

PAUL TYO Tigard Many say health providers violated
public right

As a current and 53-year member of Kaiser Permanente
Northwest, I am
outraged by The Oregonian's expose of the failure to report malpractice
lawsuits, deaths and harm that have befallen members of Kaiser, Legacy
Health Systems and Oregon Health & Science University ("Patel's
disturbing
record at Kaiser stayed hidden for years," Nov. 6; and "State let
Kaiser,
OHSU escape oversight," Nov. 7).

The secrecy strikes fear into the hearts of members
who rely on their
physicians to provide quality care and services for their well-being.
Dr.
Jayant M. Patel's negligence reflects negatively on all physicians.

Now is the time for the governor and the Legislature
to mandate reporting
of all malpractice claims to the state with the names, outcomes and any
financial settlements. All previous claims should be disclosed,
retroactive
for the past 20 years.

The state Board of Medical Examiners was negligent
in its regulatory
function. The board's charge is to oversee the quality of care
delivered
by licensed physicians. It appears that the board defends the
physicians
more than patients' lives. It is time for some housecleaning at the
Board
of Medical Examiners, with new membership and a new director.

DOLORES HUBERT Northeast Portland

Thanks to your reporters for their story on the
abrogation of public
interest and patient safety by Oregon's trusted medical institutions
for
18 years ("State let Kaiser, OHSU escape oversight," Nov. 7).

At these institutions, the code of silence has
trumped "first do no
harm."

The managers of these institutions during the period
should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of law as an incentive to current and future
managers.
Fining the institutions [would] merely raise the cost of health care.

Public officials who connived with them also should
be prosecuted to
help restore public trust in the relevant state institutions.

TOM SHILLOCK Southwest Portland

I am a physician with Kaiser, and I am expressing my
personal opinion.
I have a different view of the facts presented in your series on
malpractice.

The history is complex, but it boils down to this:
In 1991, the Legislature
passed an ambiguous amendment to a malpractice reporting act that
exempted
Legacy from reporting, and allowed Kaiser and OHSU to claim the same
exemption.
They ceased reporting malpractice among their physicians to the state
Board
of Medical Examiners, which was not even aware that Kaiser and OHSU
were
not reporting.

In 1998, Kaiser successfully limited the practice of
an incompetent
surgeon. The Oregonian wrote a series that detailed the pain and horror
of each injured patient, and implied that Kaiser was at fault because
it
did not report to the Board of Medical Examiners, and the board would
have
acted more swiftly.

However, when Kaiser reviewed the surgeon's record,
it took Kaiser five
months to restrict the surgeon's privileges. When the Board of Medical
Examiners was notified of this action, it took two years to discipline
the physician.

The Legislature wrote the law poorly, and the Board
of Medical Examiners
is underfunded, overworked and slow. It is clear that the state could
not
have acted with the speed that Kaiser took in limiting this surgeon.

Kaiser should be praised for protecting its
patients, not condemned.

STEPHEN BACHHUBER, M.D. Southeast Portland

It is totally disgusting to me that Kaiser and OHSU
(and others) would
look for every loophole they could find to keep the public from knowing
about dangerous doctors.

Doesn't your Nov. 7 article's statement that
"evidence had mounted that
state boards were allowing dangerous doctors to keep their licenses,
provided
they quietly resigned and moved elsewhere" ring a bell?

That's the same mind-set that let pedophile priests
continue to victimize
over and over again. Absolutely inexcusable.

RUTH NEWBREY Southwest Portland

The reporting of the tragedy surrounding Dr. Jayant
M. Patel was good
work. The Board of Medical Examiners is more concerned with political
misfits
within the medical profession than it is with bad patient care.

The failure of the medical profession to adequately
police itself makes
us realize the importance of juries in evaluating poor medical care.
When
will the secrecy surrounding the medical profession, and the good ol'
boy
network, give way to the sanitizing effects of daylight and public
scrutiny?

JEFF WIHTOL Southwest Portland

Tortured logic

From Abu Ghraib to secret prisons in the former
Soviet Gulag, we have
quite a little discussion going on these days about torture. What's
missing
from this discussion is the purely practical: Torture doesn't work.
Everyone
from former CIA officials to the head of the Judge Advocate General's
office
to professional "interrogators" and even conservative writers [will]
tell
you what any decent police detective already knows: When you torture
people,
they will tell you what you want to hear, whether or not it has
anything
to do with the truth. Now, if your purpose is to be hateful and
vindictive
against brown-skinned people in funny clothes who fly airplanes into
buildings,
then torture might be your thing. But don't fool yourself into thinking
it produces information of any value.

I object to our use of terror not on ethical grounds
but on practical
ones -- the same reasons I object to the war in Iraq. Neither is making
any headway in the larger war on terror.

EDWARD C. BROYLES West Linn

President Bush has threatened to veto the military
budget if it includes
a provision against torture sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and
supported by 90 senators.

The military understands that if we use torture, our
enemies will feel
free to use it on any of our soldiers who might be captured.

The world understands that if we endorse torture, we
can never again
hold the moral high ground in discussions within the United Nations.
The
American people understand that the use of torture is against
everything
we stand for.

The ones who don't understand why we should not be
torturing people
are the president and his closest advisers.

PHILIP SCOTT Vancouver

President Bush's adamant statement, "We do not
torture," eerily reminds
me of an equally adamant quote from a past president: "I am not a
crook."

RAYMOND A. TAYLOR Southeast Portland

Regarding the issue of torture and the CIA: You can
choose to believe
a senator who was a prisoner of war, enduring torture for seven years
in
service to his country, or a vice president who got seven deferments to
avoid military service to his country. I choose the senator.

ROBERT C. FIELDS Beaverton

It seems that it is easy for President Bush, Vice
President Cheney and
others to authorize methods of questioning that they believe are firm
but
others see as torture. It is easy for them to see these methods as not
being torturous because they have never experienced them.

I think that anyone who wants to authorize or
participate in such methods
should be required to personally undergo such methods for a period of
time.
This would give them a much more informed basis for their authorization
or participation.

LINDA J. ZENICANIN Southeast Portland

Iraq policy is dishonest

Our policies in Iraq have created more terrorists
rather than fewer.
We are unable to capture [all of] the leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq and
elsewhere.
We have lost more than 2,000 American service members and spent
billions
of dollars, yet we are no closer to capturing Osama bin Laden than we
were
on Sept. 12, 2001.

The violence continues unabated. What have we
accomplished by being
in Iraq for the last three years? The administration is unable to give
an honest answer to that question.

President Bush continues to hold on to his misguided
policy of staying
the course until complete victory. It did not work in Vietnam, and it
will
not work in Iraq.

RON ZUNDELL Beaverton

Vietnam vet backs Bush

Back when I was a young man, I remember many a wall
was adorned with
a picture of [Dwight D. Eisenhower] or Jack Kennedy. You didn't have to
be patriotic to show respect. Party affiliation didn't obscure the
honor
of the presidency.

Today's treatment of President Bush is appalling.
Here is a man who
could be kicking back enjoying his millions. Instead, he's under the
most
concentrated and vile scrutiny any leader has ever endured. It makes me
cringe when I see a man who is sacrificing so much be the source of so
much ridicule.

This really hits home because I spent 365 days in
Vietnam fighting a
war under a president who makes Bush look like Abraham Lincoln.

That war also had little bearing on the future of
our country, whereas
the current conflict has huge implications. It's cool, especially in
the
Northwest, to be anti-Bush right now. I'm just not cool.

MIKE DAVIS Brush Prairie, Wash.

'My taxes are causing harm'

The Republicans have finally made me an anti-tax
advocate.

Now that they're making budget cuts in all of the
social programs that
actually help people, appointing department heads who come from
industries
the agencies are supposed to regulate, and spending vast amounts of
money
on corporate subsidies, pre-emptive wars and secret prisons, my taxes
are
causing more harm than good.

Count me in on supporting tax cuts, especially if
they go to the 90
percent of us who didn't benefit as much from the last ones.

BILL KOWNACKI North Portland

Quranic intelligent design?

I wonder if proponents for teaching intelligent
design would be so fervent
if the idea had originated in the Quran. GORDON MERSETH Southeast
Portland

Futures of Wirth vs. Libby

State Rep. Kelley Wirth, D-Corvallis, has certainly
been in the news
a lot lately, for allegedly having an affair, being cited for drug
possession,
resigning from her seat [effective Nov. 15], and now pumping up
payments
to her mother as a legislative assistant.

What a difference between Wirth's mug shot and I.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby's
debonair image smiling manfully on his crutches from The Oregonian's
front
page. What a difference in their future prospects.

Wirth has both legs smashed and is permanently
disabled. Libby's broken
foot will probably recover.

Wirth may face jail and emerge to months of physical
therapy and medical
debts. Libby will probably get a pardon.

Wirth padded her mother's last month of salary.
Libby's rich friends
are filling his legal defense fund and will take care of him in style.

Both are innocent until proved guilty.

ELIZABETH RATHBUN Tigard

Medicare Part D is a mess

I am also a great-grandmother and I agree with Bea
Kohnle (Letters,
Nov. 5) that the only benefit Medicare Part D provides is to low-income
seniors, but I think also to the insurance companies. She suggests the
rest of us take a deep breath, choose a plan and pray it's right. I'm
taking
a deep breath and opting out.

This plan is a mess -- purposefully complicated and
provides little
help to most of us. If we pay the monthly premium, the deductible and
then
the co-pay for both my husband and me, the cost is well more than what
we now pay for our medicines.

The threat that if we don't join now because it
might cost more later
is pure extortion and typical of the fear-spreading doctrine of this
administration.

I'm hoping that we'll have a new president and
Congress in a short time,
and this mess can be corrected, perhaps with universal health care so
that
we'll all pay less.

DONNELLA SLAYTON Northeast Portland

Which penalty is more just?

Am I the only one perplexed that Christopher and
Tammy Nickel got three
years in prison for torturing and nearly killing their [young adopted]
daughter, while Sung Koo Kim will serve more than four years for having
a panty fetish ("Man apologizes for panty thefts," Nov. 8)?

I'll admit, a 3,000-panty collection is a bit
freaky, but he didn't
commit attempted murder. Did I miss something?

THOMAS WALLING Vancouver

When police don't help

My heart goes out to Virginia Joy, whose son's
custom-made BMX bike
was stolen [during a burglary of their home]. The family saw it later
in
the neighborhood, but police refused to act (Letters, Nov. 7).

My house also was broken into twice. The first time
I called the police,
and although I knew exactly who did it and even had a witness, police
refused
to act. The second time it happened, I confronted the individual
responsible
and got my stuff back. Now that's what I call community-based policing.

Maybe the next time the family sees the bike, they
should push off the
kid who's riding it and reclaim their property. What's he going to do
--
call the cops? Short of that, take his picture [while he is] on the
bicycle
and plaster it all over the neighborhood with the word "thief" pointing
to him. Mail a copy to the police; maybe officers will add it to the
report.

If the bike belonged to the mayor or the police
chief's son, I wonder
if police would respond differently.

KEITH LINCOLN Southeast Portland

Entitled to a privilege?

Is access to the Portland Art Museum a right or a
privilege? Should
we have the same rights of access as we do to the Portland Park Blocks
or the Eastbank Esplanade?

Reading Susan Nielsen's column, "Portland art lovers
glower at museum's
too-tall gates" (Nov. 6), it's easy to see that some people believe
access
to art is a right.

If through our government we choose to make
something a right, then
a right it is. If we spend our tax dollars building a beautiful
waterfront,
then access to that is a right.

But in the world of not-for-profits, such as the
Portland Art Museum,
which rely on the generous gifts of donors and the fees patrons pay,
access
is by no means a right.

Running a museum is expensive business, and Portland
Art Museum has
risen to world-class caliber through its most recent ambitious
expansion.
Access to world-class works here in Portland is a privilege.

JOHN BERNARD Beaverton

Insecure liberals

Good heavenly gracious. The letters page is
beginning to read like Daily
Kos. Six letters (Nov. 6) to tell us how much smarter liberals are than
conservatives? Is the left really that insecure?

Well, yes. Liberals have to assert intellectual
superiority; it saves
them the embarrassment of actually having to debate. Anointed by their
own preening -- "I think it, therefore it is" -- any view to the
contrary
is considered anti-intellectual. It's much easier to say "you're
stupid"
than to attend to facts.

Oh, well. The bad news is that the left owns
academia, where [professors
such as] Ward Churchill are considered mainstream, and conservative
thought
is considered unfit to hear. A little like The Oregonian letters page.

JEFF KEMPE West Linn

Going to the dogs indeed

In "Our lives are going to the dogs and we love it"
(Nov. 6), it was
reported that a customer purchased $600 worth of clothing for her dog
during
a single visit to a dog boutique in Portland's tony Pearl District.

This year, many of the less fortunate have lost
loved ones, homes and
all of their worldly possessions as the result of a chain of crippling
natural disasters. Many individuals, with no need for public
recognition,
are contributing to efforts to rebuild lives and infrastructure in the
affected areas.

In the face of the current state of the world, one
wonders why The Oregonian
chose to publicize the peculiar spending habits of a self-indulgent
segment
of our local populace. Perhaps the naysayers are correct when they say
society is "going to the dogs."

SHARON L. CARVER Southwest Portland

Dead trees nurture new ones

I take exception to your editorial suggesting the
Reps. Greg Walden
and Brian Baird salvage plan is a smart idea ("Now the fight is over
dead
trees," Nov. 4). On the face of it, your argument seems to make sense,
but you missed [part] of the science behind the debate: Dead trees are
the critical component of restoring burned forests. It is the dead and
decaying wood material that gives future plants and trees the nutrients
they need to grow; they literally create new dirt.

The two years after a fire are the most critical for
the life of a forest;
it must be nurtured (not stripped) at that time for the reforestation
to
take hold.

There is a sensible and sustainable plan for
forests: Don't clear-cut.

FRANK DUFAY Southeast Portland

Fingerprint those who pawn

There seems to be a fairly simple solution to the
problem of pawnshops
and metal purchasers accepting stolen goods. An ordinance could require
a person who pawns or sells these items to leave a fingerprint on the
information
card. This would discourage thieves and give the police [evidence].

If the person accepting such goods does not require
adequate proof of
ownership, then it would be up to him to recover the money he is out --
not the real owner.

If a liquor store owner sells liquor to an underage
person or a store
accepts an illegal check, who is responsible? It should be the same
with
pawnshops.